Callahan: Racing royalty ran at Garden State Park

11:49 PM,
May 18, 2013

Aerial view of Garden State Park race track in Cherry Hill.

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CHERRY HILL - On this, the 40th anniversary of Secretariat's Triple Crown, I took a ride by the land where Garden State Park once stood, rising majestically with a white wooden grandstand like the Yankee Stadium of horse racing.

Now another indistinct shopping center, this sacred soil used for shopping was where Secretariat raced only a few months before becoming thoroughbred majesty in 1973.

Back then, there was a gap in the fence off Third Ave., near the back entrance of the track. The gap was wide enough for a kid's body, which is where I used to sneak in back the early 1970's, avoiding the ...